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Kings George III, Obama: Choking Off Independent Economic Life

If only a gorget and a fort made of palmetto logs could stop the choking today as in 1776

Happy Independence Day! One of many reasons Americans can commemorate the approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July (the signing actually took place weeks later) occurred the week before in Charleston, South Carolina when American rebels led by Colonel William Moultrie defeated the British in the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, thanks in large part to the spongy nature of the palmetto tree logs with which the partially constructed fort he commanded was constructed.

The June 28, 1776 American victory took place after what would later be dubbed the First Siege of Charleston as the British would eventually take the crucial eastern seaboard port four years later. But that Fort Moultrie, later completed and named for the victorious colonel, stood and absorbed massive British bombardment prevented the choking off of the Southern colonists from their northern compatriots. Which brings us to that other feature of the South Carolina state flag, that alone adorned the battle flag flown by the rebels (pictured above) in their successful defense of the Holy City, that most assume is a crescent moon (Islam doesn’t own any stage of lunar illumination, but I digress) and that represents the reason for this column’s title (Although much as King George had his Parliament, so has President Barack Obama had his Democrats in Congress, but again I digress).

The “gorget” was the last piece of armor to be worn by modern soldiers but which by the time of the American Revolution had evolved into a decorative piece worn around a warrior’s neck, and which was also the emblem on the helmets worn by Colonel Moultrie and his deep blue-uniformed militia. The original gorget (pictured right) was the armor piece that fitted snugly around the neck to guard against fatal sword swipes and choking at close quarters.

The siege at Charleston was only the latest British attempt to choke the independent economic life out of colonies that had essentially governed themselves for at least a century until the French and Indian War had to be paid for in a way most palatable to English citizens represented in Parliament. Hence commenced taxation of the colonists, who had no such representation in London, with Stamp, Sugar and other “Intolerable” Acts that eventually led to a 1773 tea party in Boston and 1775 shots heard round the world in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, a Mecklenburg (County in North Carolina where Charlotte residents so terrorized later British occupiers that it was dubbed a “hornet’s nest”) Declaration of Independence and the expedition to choke off the colonists in the South.

The Declaration approved in the City of Brotherly Love six days after Charleston was saved included among its grievances against the King of Great Britain that:

“He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.”

Which now brings us to what taxation and regulation with Democratic Party representation have wrought in 2013 with the politicization of the Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency and Obamacare-corrupted Department of Health and Human Resources. What else can, but harassing swarms that eat us out of house and home, their officers be deemed that deny tax exempt status to tea party patriots, jobs necessary for human survival to ostensibly “save” a planet allegedly in peril due to exhaled human breath, and health insurance contracts between consenting adults that don’t cover abortion pills?

Hopefully, especially given President Obama’s tacit admission that Obamacare’s employer mandate so prolifically kills full-time jobs that its implementation before the 2014 mid-term elections endangers too many Democrats’ political lives, Republican leaders in Congress will muster the thimble-full of the courage exhibited at Sullivan’s Island necessary to demand repeal of Obamacare before any further increase in the debt ceiling.

Another thimble-full and maybe the elected-GOP mind could translate Atlas Shrugged fiction into fact and put an end to vague, and arguably unconstitutional, grants of legislative power that let Secretaries Sebelius et al decide what We the People deserve notice of so that our representatives may be more efficiently held accountable:

It was the chance conversation of two men somewhere behind her that came beating suddenly against her closed attention.

“But laws shouldn’t be passed that way, so quickly.”

“They’re not laws, they’re directives.”

“Then it’s illegal.”

“It’s not illegal, because the Legislature passed a law last month giving them the power to issue directives.”

“I don’t think directives should be sprung on people that way, out of the blue, like a punch in the nose.”

“Well ther’s no time to palaver when it’s a national emergency.”

“But I don’t think it’s right and it doesn’t jibe. How is Rearden going to do it, when it says here–“

“Why should you worry about Rearden? He’s rich enough. He can find a way to do anything.”

Sadly, no country including America can ever be rich enough to “find a way to do anything”, including reversing the Leviathan of Big Obama Democrat Government save for the courage of many more than one man unafraid of the PC police, IRS auditors or even cannon balls, but as this South Carolina tea party patriot Gamecock’s signature line bespeaks, sometimes one man with enough of that most vital of virtues can make a majority.

Today, on the 237th birthday of the United States of America we thank God that the Moultries, Washingtons, Lincolns, and, in honor of the Sesquicentennial anniversary of the surrender of Vicksburg, Grants had the sufficient measure of courage so that we still have a chance today to save the Last Best Hope of Man on Earth.